Gilbert & George to Launch London Foundation in 2019

Artforum

October 5, 2017

Anny Shaw of the Art Newspaper reports that British art duo Gilbert & George are preparing to launch a nonprofit foundation in London to exhibit their work and, if funding permits, the work of others. They are refurbishing an old brewery they purchased for about $6.6 million. The foundation is scheduled to open sometime in 2019.

The building will have exhibition, office, and storage spaces, in addition to a small apartment for the foundation’s caretaker. The entrance will have a wrought-iron fence bearing the artists’ initials that will also be protecting a small garden. “We want it to be like [the novel] The Secret Garden,” said the artists. “Everyone has a secret garden; think of the Garden of Eden.”

Gilbert & George’s archive will stay at their current home, located at Twelve Fournier Street, which the artists have lived in since the 1960s. Every single thing they own will be a part of the foundation. They have also created detailed instructions on how to take care of and restore their work. “Young people ask us why we document everything in the archive,” said the artists. “We say: ‘It’s because we want to be immoral.’ They say: ‘Do you mean immortal?’ We say: ‘That too.’”